Lord Of The Flies

Drama Coursework

1. My reasons for taking drama were to build up my confidence level and to meet and work with new people. I also think I am quite good at it and I hope to learn new skills and dramatic techniques.

2. This half term we have played a range of different games, including Hair height, I love you honey, sunshine's on and in the manner of the word. I found hair height interesting as I learnt a lot about what I had in common with my peers but I felt scared because I didn't know many of the people in my group very well. To overcome this I had to talk to everyone and by the end of the game I found it easier to talk to people and was not so scared. I did not like sunshine's on because when I ended up in the middle I became embarrassed as I did not have anything to ask. From this exercise I learnt I was quite shy and self-conscious. To overcome this I became louder and more enthusiastic by thinking of more questions to ask and repeating them to the group. I enjoyed I love you honey a lot, as it helped me keep a straight face when people were watching me. I learnt that I found it hard to keep a serious face when someone was speaking to me. To overcome this I had to concentrate more on the task. This helps me outside of drama as well, so I don't laugh when someone is speaking to me about a serious matter.

3. I think that the group works well together and there are many different types of people within the group. Anna is a loud member of the group and takes a leadership role, as she is good at staying in character throughout a performance. Aca is a quiet one within the group and seems to find it hard to put ideas forward but he is good at being a less talkative character and using facial expressions instead of dialogue. Lizzie is another leader, and seems to find it easy to get into character in whatever situation she is given, and is able to make the scene believable by using enthusiastic speech. Lee is quite a quiet person but if he is put with the right group he can become more confident and come up with some good ideas. I think Lee is good at improvising and was good at playing the character of Derek Bentley when we did his life story. I think everyone was a bit scared at the start of the year and have changed during the first half term.

4. In drama we did five childhood freeze frames. For this I worked with Lee, Lucy, Amy L Moore, Anna and Laura. We had to show a child's life in these freezes and to do this; we used facial expressions and improvisation to make it clear to the audience what we were doing. In the first freeze frame I opened my mouth to show that I was screaming and leant forwards, lifting one leg to show that I was falling. In the second freeze frame Anna sat near the back of the area we were acting in, looking sad to show she was lonely, and Lee and Lucy pointed at her and held there noses, smiling to each other, to show they were bullying Anna. To move into the next frame we learnt a technique called melt and mould. I thought this technique was really good and I used it a lot. I thought that the freeze frames were quite successful and worked well, but we could have improved them by using different scenes, not just the school one.

Ð'* The next thing we did was behind the wall, based on a piece of music about domestic violence. First we acted out the perfect family scenario. For this I worked with Sian, Chloe, Ben and Lianne. This scene was successful because everyone exaggerated everything to show the audience that they really loved their family. We also did the opposite of that, and acted out the worst family with the same people as before. This was much easier as we could relate it to the music. The scene didn't go well though because we made Ben a comically drunk character, but it didn't fit the seriousness of the whole act.

Ð'* For the second part of behind the wall we did a mime where a person had been killed by her husband through domestic violence. For this scene I worked with Lee, Phoebe, Chloe and Amy N. To make this work we really had to focus more on our facial expressions and our actions to let the audience know what was going on. We improvised a dead body. To show Chloe was angry with Lee she frowned and pushed him, and to show Chloe was upset and stunned she covered her mouth and opened her eyes really wide. I think this piece of Drama was one of my best so far throughout the term, and I think it really worked because everyone had ideas and did not spoil it by laughing half way through the performance.

Ð'* We then did some script work on Derek Bentley where Chloe and I read the script of the two girls. We tried to show that we were two girls in a toilet having a gossip. I think the hardest thing was trying to memorise and practice without the script. I think this went quite well and I think it was interesting as we were using actions and expressions to show how the people felt.

Ð'* Also we hot seated Mrs McLaughlin who

...